TOYOTA POWERTRAIN ROADMAP

Matching technology to suit vehicle use

The Toyota powertrain roadmap envisages efficient use of all available energy sources, to ensure a long-term future for private and public transport despite the increasing burden of restrictions on the use of traditional fossil fuels.

In this context, Toyota has been working for more than 40 years on the design and development of more environmentally responsible means of transport, with the aim of ultimately offering a full range of ecological vehicles to suit all types of user.

Drawing on its unrivalled experience in hybrid powerplants, Toyota is already producing electric vehicles, hybrids and rechargeable “plug-in” hybrids and is preparing to launch its first Fuel Cell Sedan. In this way the company is laying the foundations for the future co-existence of several types of low or even zero-emissions cars.

In the immediate future, short-range, individual mobility will be catered for by small, typically urban electric vehicles such as i-Road. At the other end of the scale, the Fuel Cell Sedan will be appropriate for long-distance journeys, public transport and freight haulage.

Between these two developing solutions, most vehicles will continue to use an internal combustion engine, powered by liquid fuels, including petrol, diesel and bio fuels, and compressed gases, such as natural gas.

Toyota remains convinced that its award-winning hybrid powerplant – with more than seven million worldwide sales to its credit – is the mobility technology best suited to addressing environmental issues and the depletion of energy resources.

Toyota’s system is a 100 per cent “series-parallel” hybrid, capable of running on a combination of electric and internal combustion engine power, or on electric power alone. It has the performance attributes of a parallel hybrid and the simplicity and clean-running advantages of a series hybrid, without experiencing the associated drawbacks of either system.

Figures published by the European Commission and European Environment Agency for 2013 show that average emissions for Toyota and Lexus vehicles sold in Europe were 116.6g/km. This shows that the company already performs better than the official 2015 target of 127.9g/km by a margin of 11.3g/km.